


As We Drift Away

by lishuponastar



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, tfios au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-28 13:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/992580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lishuponastar/pseuds/lishuponastar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam persuades Dean to start going to a Summer support group for Cancer patients. It's not going to be a happy ending, but he never expected one, and it's enough. It's enough... just to be alive, no matter how short that time might be.<br/>And then something even more unexpected happens.<br/>Benny happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As We Drift Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [presumablynot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/presumablynot/gifts).



It was late in May when Sam slapped the leaflet onto the Impala’s dashboard, the heading Teen Cancer Support in cheery yellow glaring up at him. That hadn’t been the first time Sam tried to snap Dean out of his depression, so here he was, six days later at the insistence of his baby-brother-who-never-gave-up, for whatever support these people claimed to give.  
  
Dean’s slouched in on himself in one of the hard blue chairs, his elbows on his knees and fingers entwined as he stares at the rough scratches in the dirty floor tiles. There are people walking around him, dragging chairs into the vague shape of a circle and talking in low murmurs, but the sounds all blur together and Dean’s eyes go out of focus while he waits.  
  
He had only been diagnosed just over seven months ago; his body late in showing symptoms of the illness until it was terminal. It’ll kill him sooner rather than later, but then again, his lifestyle doesn’t really have a long life expectancy. Sam had been… well, there isn’t really a word for the crushing heartbreak that Dean saw in his little brother’s face when they heard the news.  
  
“Hello,” A deep and calm voice cuts through the fog of Dean’s thoughts, snapping him back to reality. He turns his head minutely to the left, peering up at where the voice came from, seeing a young looking boy, his hair pointing in every direction and large and slightly glassy blue eyes staring up at him. “I’m Castiel, but you can call me Cas, the people here call me Cas, so I’m used to it now. Castiel is a bit of a mouthful to be fair so, yeah and what’s your name?” The boy continues, his hands moving almost as fast as his mouth, and then he stops, his lips quirked up in a smile and his head tipped to the side like a confused puppy before he drops himself into the seat next to Dean.  
  
“Dean.” He replies, jerking the first two fingers of his right hand in a mock wave, sitting upright slowly and throwing an arm over the back of his chair as the bustling around them slows down. Dean opens his mouth to speak again, when a tall, stern looking woman approaches the makeshift circle, and takes one of the spare seats.  
  
There aren’t that many people there, just a smattering of youths, sat with one or two seats between each other. Besides Dean and Cas that is, and Dean wonders why he’s always the one to attract strays.  
~  
The meeting hadn’t been as bad as he thought it would be. Normally he would’ve hated being in a room full of strangers, but then again, he was always more comfortable with the people in which he had a common enemy… and it was interesting. Almost comforting, to be with people who knew what it felt like. He thought it sounded like a cliché… that only other people with the illness could understand, but he just felt a connection with them, a sense of kin.  
  
Castiel became his friend instantly; he was clingy and awkward in ways Dean had never encountered before, but it was also endearing, and Sam loved him immediately. They were so alike, and Dean hadn’t seen Sam smile that big in a long time. Somehow it made everything worth it. That smile was something he would miss the most.  
~  
The group register goes down by two after three meetings. Dean doesn’t cry for them, but his chest aches, and the weight on his shoulders gets heavier.  
~  
It’s in the fourth meeting that Dean meets someone new. He’s sat next to Castiel when Dean arrives, his feet curled around the chair legs. Dean studies him as he sits on Castiel’s other side; he looks at the flat cap, the pale blue fading into grey and the material rubbed off from constant use. He looks at the smattering of hair across the guy’s cheeks and chin, the thick rough looking hands placed almost delicately on his thighs and a bright smile cutting across his face at something Castiel is saying. Dean is leaning forward in his chair, he’s staring, and nobody is noticing… but this guy, his eyes are a swirling shade of green and brown that Dean can’t seem to look away from. That is until Castiel spins on his chair and quickly introduces them before the meeting begins.  
  
Dean barely listens, and keeps sneaking looks at the guy-Benny. Well, he thinks, this is a new kind of trouble.


End file.
